- Jul 29, 2004
- 19,666
- 331,981
Arsenal have more supporters than us?
Yep, and it's not even close.
Arsenal have more supporters than us?
Arsenal have more supporters than us?
The owls are not what they seem
Anyone arguing there isn't a Sky agenda, though, is in la la land. This is Murdoch territory, the guy has an agenda on everything. You reckon they haven't drawn up a plan of who and how to cover on Sky Sports?
That’s all good and well until you remember which Club’s chairman steered the premier league towards a deal with sky in the early days.
It was some chap named Sugar and he made a fortune making set top boxes.
Pretty sure he didn't making a fortune on the set top boxes, he made the dishes.
And yet completely failed to capitalise on the actual Sky boom. If ever anything showed Sugar's grasp of the basics of business but not the wider picture, Sky comes in first above the e-m@iler. How you could be on the inside and fuck it up to that degree. He was focused on Amstrad, not on how it could actually benefit Spurs. Proper West Ham thinking.
He was mates with Murdoch and knew how to make the dishes cheaply, that was literally why he did it - as he knew he could make a quick buck. He didn't at all grasp the complexities and what was to come, he was no visionary. If you've read his autobiography, he's quite honest about it, and Spurs recessed during that period and missed the boat.
Sugar made all his money on property, lest not forget. His actual business is no great shakes.
I always remember our early Sky Boxes having Amstrad on the front in big letters. He may have made the dishes too, but Amstrad were definitely the main box suppliers too.
Oh they made them, Amstrad Fidelity, but that’s not where the money was (again, as I understand it). He worked out they could whack dishes out of a load of sheet metal he could get, Del Boy style, when everyone else was charging a fortune for precision satellite dishes. It’s informed his whole “Tech isn’t that complicated” viewpoint and allowed them to charge a premium.
Either way, he still steered the premier league into Murdoch’s arms.